[books 2011] etc
Apr. 13th, 2011 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro20. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
This month's Bibliogoths books. I might expand after we've had our meeting.
My favourite thing with Tolkien is picking up on where his imagination is informed by his day job as an Anglo-Saxonist.
I haven't read this in decades. The only thing I remembered in any detail is Bilbo finding the Ring. I suspect that's the only thing that will stick with me again.
Terribly uneven as I find all of Tolkien's stuff - some bits really good, some bits too tedious for words.
21. Faithful Place by Tana French
Tana French's first two books, In the Woods and The Likeness, are two of the most suspenseful thrillers I've ever read. Particularly the latter.
This one is about an undercover Dublin policeman who was raised in a violent home and hasn't been back since his girlfriend Rosie disappeared on the night they were supposed to elope in 1982. Twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase is found, and he ends up unofficially going undercover in his parents' flat.
Like French's other work, this is full of sharp, insightful elements of social comment. This one is set just as the Irish were starting to get rich but before they joined the Euro and her portrait of slum-dwellers who hate anyone who is "up themselves" (ie isn't drunk 24 hours a day and has had a job, ever), who are being passed by by the whole Celtic Tiger phenomenon, is very convincing.
Her portrayal of Ireland in the early 80s is what really packs a punch, though. Utterly bleak.
I'd forgotten that condoms were illegal in the Republic back then.
The first half of this is very much like her other two books and I couldn't put it down. I didn't feel that strongly about the second half, but I suspect that was me and not the book.
While I loved it less than her earlier works, this is still enthralling and powerful stuff. Go read it. After you read The Likeness.
This month's Bibliogoths books. I might expand after we've had our meeting.
My favourite thing with Tolkien is picking up on where his imagination is informed by his day job as an Anglo-Saxonist.
I haven't read this in decades. The only thing I remembered in any detail is Bilbo finding the Ring. I suspect that's the only thing that will stick with me again.
Terribly uneven as I find all of Tolkien's stuff - some bits really good, some bits too tedious for words.
21. Faithful Place by Tana French
Tana French's first two books, In the Woods and The Likeness, are two of the most suspenseful thrillers I've ever read. Particularly the latter.
This one is about an undercover Dublin policeman who was raised in a violent home and hasn't been back since his girlfriend Rosie disappeared on the night they were supposed to elope in 1982. Twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase is found, and he ends up unofficially going undercover in his parents' flat.
Like French's other work, this is full of sharp, insightful elements of social comment. This one is set just as the Irish were starting to get rich but before they joined the Euro and her portrait of slum-dwellers who hate anyone who is "up themselves" (ie isn't drunk 24 hours a day and has had a job, ever), who are being passed by by the whole Celtic Tiger phenomenon, is very convincing.
Her portrayal of Ireland in the early 80s is what really packs a punch, though. Utterly bleak.
I'd forgotten that condoms were illegal in the Republic back then.
The first half of this is very much like her other two books and I couldn't put it down. I didn't feel that strongly about the second half, but I suspect that was me and not the book.
While I loved it less than her earlier works, this is still enthralling and powerful stuff. Go read it. After you read The Likeness.
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Date: 2011-04-15 08:12 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2m2x8qJcGQ